1. Field
The present disclosure relates to a probe card and, more particularly, to a probe assembly for use in testing electrical characteristics of a testing object such as a semiconductor wafer, a flat panel display.
2. Description of the Related Technology
Semiconductor devices are manufactured through a variety of processes including wafer production, wafer test, die packaging and so forth. The wafer test refers to a so-called electrical die sorting test for testing electrical characteristics of the semiconductor devices. In the electrical die sorting test, the semiconductor devices are sorted into acceptable products and unacceptable products by bringing probe pins of a probe card into contact with electrode pads of the semiconductor devices and then allowing an electric current to flow through the electrode pads of the semiconductor devices. In addition to testing the semiconductor devices, the probe card is used in testing data/gate lines in a cell process of flat displays such as a TFT-LCD (Thin Film Transistor-Liquid Crystal Display), a PDP (Plasma Display Panel), an OEL (Organic Electro-Luminescence) and the like.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,150,095 and 7,138,812 disclose probe cards in which needle type probes are connected to a printed circuit board. Each of the probe cards disclosed in these patent documents includes a supporter for supporting probes on a printed circuit board. The probes are fixed to the supporter by means of an insulating material and electrically connected to the printed circuit board by soldering.
With the probe cards disclosed in the above patent documents, however, the probes need to be aligned with the supporter through the use of a probe-positioning jig in order for a worker to fix the probes to the supporter, and the soldering has to be performed to bond the probes to the printed circuit board. This sharply reduces the productivity of the probe cards and makes it quite difficult to evenly align the probes to the supporter.
Furthermore, the probe cards make it difficult to repair or replace the probes on a one-by-one basis because the probes are soldered to the printed circuit board. In other words, when one of the probes is defective, it is impossible to remove only the defective probe. There is no choice but to replace the probe card having the defective probe as a whole.
Moreover, in the probe cards, the probes are coated with an insulating material in order to prevent short-circuit of the probes, which leads to increased production cost and reduced productivity.
In recent years, the diameter of a wafer tends to be increased to 200 mm or more in an effort to improve the yield rate of semiconductor chips. Furthermore, the pattern of a wafer grows finer and finer. For these reasons, it is necessary to perform touchdown of a probe card several times while a single sheet of wafer is inspected with the probe card. Increase in the frequency of touchdown of a probe card leads to prolonged inspection time and rapid wear and damage of probes, thereby shortening the lifespan of the probe card.
The foregoing discussion is to provide general background information, and does not constitute an admission of prior art.